The invention generally relates an apparatus and process for continuously casting food products. More specifically, the invention relates to such an improved apparatus and process employing side rails for controlling the dimensional characteristics of the cast food product.
Food products such as processed cheese maybe difficult to cut or slice because, for example, the cheese tends to cling to the cutting surfaces. For this or other reasons, it may be preferable to form a molten food product into thin sheets by an extrusion or casting process. A cheese casting machine shown in FIG. 1, for example, uses a cooling belt, such as a stainless steel belt B, driven by large drums D. Pans may be installed at the undersides of the belts to flood the insides of the belt with a cooling medium such as a refrigerated glycol solution.
Still referring to FIG. 1, a pressurized discharge manifold may be used for distributing the molten food product onto the cooling belt and for forming the food product into a sheet having a controlled thickness. A conventional pressure manifold is a closed cavity typically consisting of a two-piece chamber. Conventionally, a positive displacement pump distributes the food product to the pressurized closed cavity of the manifold. The closed cavity receives the hot food product under pressure and distributes it uniformly along the full length of the manifold, which is oriented perpendicular to the length of the casting belt. Pressure manifolds useable in the present invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,790,242 and 5,527,551, incorporated herein by reference. The pressure manifold may be mounted at the infeed end of the machine on top of the belts (“top-cast”) or, alternatively, at some position around the radius of the upper drum at the infeed end (“angle-cast”).
Alternatively, a gauge roller on a chill roll may be used to provide a cast food product in sheet form.
The thin, cooled sheets may be slit into narrow strips or ribbons. The strips may then be stacked and cut to length for packaging, such as in slice or other forms.
To satisfy commercial requirements, food product deposition onto the cooling belt must be accomplished rapidly and on a continuous basis to accommodate the high rate at which the product is discharged on the casting belt.
Whether casting a food product using a pressure manifold or a chill roll, it would be advantageous to adjustably control the dimensions of the cast food product in a predetermined manner. This may be particularly advantageous when attempting to extrude products have a relatively low viscosity, such as a gelatin-based product as disclosed in the patent application Ser. No. 10/140,772 titled “Product And Process For Delivering Flavoring Agents To Food Products,” incorporated herein by reference, filed on the same day as this application and assigned to the same assignee as here.